I had the great opportunity to participate in the Bloggers Soapbox on the Domain Masters show on WebmasterRadio.FM. Victor Pitts from Moniker filled in for Monte Cahn as the host, and I was interviewed along with Mike Berkens and Michael Gimour.
A transcript of the show has been posted on WebmasterRadio.FM, and I appreciate the opportunity speak tonight.
I just finished writing up my analysis of the Mystery domain auction that’s been commented upon by just about everyone in the domain space. I didn’t feel like blogging about it, so I just decided to voice my opinion on the domain forum, NamePros. I don’t post there often but visit on occasion and have never had any issues or problems at all.
I wrote out several questions about the mystery auction and then posted some of my own commentary on why I believe it’s going to fail and cause problems for the person who is running this. After returning from walking the dog, I saw that my post was edited by someone named Mark, who removed most of my commentary. Instead of taking out my entire post, he decided to selectively remove my comments.
I am disturbed because I don’t think someone should censor my opinions just because they seem to go against the majority (unless all negative posts were censored and/or removed). In all my time on several domain forums both public and private, I’ve probably had my posts edited once or twice – probably for comments in a sales thread.
I think it’s completely unprofessional to edit someone’s comments on a public forum, especially when it might change the tone or message. I don’t edit what people say here, and I wish the same respect would be held for my comments elsewhere. If someone posts something on my blog that isn’t appropriate, I delete the comment and send the poster a message. I don’t simply edit out the things with which I disagree. Completely un”Pro”fessional in my opinion, and a big reason I will stay away from posting there in the future.
Anyway, the gist of what I said is that people have been comparing this to the Million Dollar homepage project, which raised quite a bit of money. That was a very unique project and received worldwide press, and as a result it raised a considerable amount of money. The domain mystery auction is no revolution and will not receive the same type of buzz. This is a take off on a controversial type of auction with a domain twist.
Additionally, I said that the guy holding the auction should probably have some type of insurance coverage, as any glitch in the bidding could end up in litigation by someone who spent hundreds of dollars on bids but didn’t win.
I also doubt the auction’s mystery domain name is really worth $10,000. Everyone thinks they have a $10,000 domain name, and anyone can post any reserve price for a domain auction, so simply because it had a $10,000 reserve doesn’t mean it’s worth this price. The point of this statement is that if the auction manager is hoping for added buzz when the domain is revealed, that is highly unlikely to happen.
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The moderator just replied to me saying,
“This is the “For Sale / Advertising” section … It is a sales thread …
Legit Questions are always welcome in Sales and Advertising threads. Comments and Conjecture are not.”
Apparently he doesn’t understand the definition of the term “comment” since there are many other comments (positive of course) that were not edited out – including his own.
“Originally Posted by -REECE-
That’s a very neat and creative site you made there John. Has a nice design to go along with it – well done and best of luck!
Originally Posted by drjawed
Fantastic idea and well-designed site. The mechanism is a bit ambiguous (mysterious ) though. It will take some long time to win the confidence of bidders. Wish you good luck.
Originally Posted by Brujah
John is a hardworking clever guy. I think the idea’s great and hope it makes a million.
Originally Posted by Mark
Pretty Innovative ”
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Now it appears that NamePros has closed my account due to my questioning their censoring. No, I am not going to appeal to RJ or whoever else owns the forum. It should just be a lesson for others who post opinions in public domain forums.
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Final update… it seems they have re-activated my account (without a request from me). I will continue to not post there often – unless the thread has some personal involvement.
Andrew Allemann of Domain Name Wire just launched a new website where you can rate various aspects of your favorite (or least favorite) registrar. The new website, called Registrar Judge, allows users to submit reviews on 12 of the largest domain registrars, with the plan to add more registrars in the future.
This is a nice way to provide feedback to others in the domain industry as well as those who work for the registrars. Congrats to Andew on the launch!
One of the most prolific domain owners in the world has announced the launch of several key websites. Future Media Architects, owners and operators of websites such as DJ.net, MP3.tv, Media.com, and i.net, has announced the launch of the following websites:
EFX.com – Children’s development toys using sounds and effects
Palette.com – Color tools, resources, and information
OSK.com – On screen keyboard information and tool
AI.com – Information and news about artificial intelligence
Cooperators.com – Meeting place and resource for people looking to cooperate to make the world a better place for everyone
Future Media Architects, which is led by domain pioneer (and my friend) Thunayan Khalid AL-Ghanim, also announced that Ibiza.com will soon be launched. Thunayan is one of the most dynamic people in the domain industry, and it’s great to see his company continue to develop its domain properties. FMA has a policy to never sell their domain names, and with their strong development strategy, it isn’t surprising.
Congratulations and cheers to Thunayan and his team at FMA.
I read a story in ComputerWorld about domain speculators buying hurricane-related domain names and parking them or listing them for sale to profit off of this natural disaster. Every time a tragedy strikes, it seems that domain speculators buy related domain names with the purpose of profiting off of disaster. This causes much criticism of the domain investment industry, and it seems legitimate domain investors take it on the chin after every tragedy.
While speculators are still buying Hurricane Gustav-related domain names, there is at least one domain investor who is foregoing profit to make a difference. Fin Lemonde registered GustavRelief.com and similar domain names on behalf of his church a couple of years ago. Fin saw people buying Katrina-related domain names and wanted to make a difference in the event any of the 2008 hurricanes caused a disaster. Fin’s idea was to create an organization that could lend itself to helping other human beings if the need arose.
Because of other projects that took precedence, as well as a tragic personal loss in the last couple of years, this organization never got off the ground. Fin kept the domain names on the back burner until a few days ago. Upon hearing news of Hurricane Gustav’s potential to cause major damage to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Fin realized he needed to do something with this important domain name to help. Putting personal morals over profit, Fin has decided to forward all traffic from GustavRelief.com to the American Red Cross.
People in need of services or help in the wake of Hurricane Gustav that type in GustavRelief.com will not have to worry about clicking on advertisements, relief scams, or being sent elsewhere. Instead, they will be sent directly to the American Red Cross homepage where they can receive help from one of the leading American charitable organizations. Likewise, people who want to help will be able to do so as well. As soon as time permits, all of these protective domain registrations will forward to a single landing page where visitors will be able to choose from several charities that are helping with relief efforts.
This is a story of a domain investor doing the right thing. Instead of the negative stories about domain investors we always see, wouldn’t it be nice if media outlets focused on people doing positive things to help other human beings?
I’ve been sent many press releases from domain-related entities lately, and I haven’t published more than a couple of them. Although some of the companies are operated and/or managed by companies with whom I do business, I didn’t publish them as I saw them posted elsewhere. As much as I am always connected to the Internet via Blackberry, I am not always by my laptop or able to write a blog post.
Unless there is something unique I can add to the story – such as my own personal analysis of a situation, I don’t see a reason to post repetitive things. With RSS readers, email news feeds, sites like Domaining.com, I think most people who choose to read my blog read many other blogs, and I personally think it’s annoying to read the exact same thing in several places. As my friend Francois told me back in November (which I have taken to heart because he is right):
“Sorry to be rude but these posts are ANNOYING!
Simply because it’s annoying to read again the SAME post you have previously read in Sahar, Frank, Ricks, … blogs without any additional information or a different point of view developed.”
The purpose of this post is to say why I haven’t published many press releases. Some people have taken that personally, and I wanted to make sure they know it isn’t anything personal.
